8A - Solving the Problem

The Solution?

On the opportunity that I chose, disabilities in the workplace, the solution I came up with is a service.

A service in which all employers, regardless of status or company achievement, partake in a type of training or course that educates them and trains them to deal with different types of people that could be employed there, including different ranges of individuals with disabilities.

This service would be mandatory in all workplaces and geared towards the employers, or all the individuals on the leadership level like department managers, hiring, and big bosses. 

What this training would entail is the different scenarios and cases that employers, and employees can come across with different individuals of different abilities. For example, training on how to interact with potential employees with Autism, education on what it means to be on the spectrum, and education to know that they have many individual capabilities and can actually bring a lot to the table at the work place. 

There is more to expand on this bus initially, this is how I plan to solve this gap between diverse populations and their employment in the workplace and how to teach acceptance and adjustability across all environments, as it should be in the work field. 

6A - Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

Economic Trends

Opportunity #1: Increased automation - factories, cars, offices, homes

• (a) I found this opportunity on the website Global Change 
• https://www.globalchange.com/10-trends-that-will-dominate-our-future-all-predictable-changing-slowly-with-huge-impact.htm

• (b) I think this opportunity exists because less people, specifically in America, are seeking manual labor jobs, like construction or many hands-on/getting down and dirty jobs that don't necessarily need a bunch of degrees for and this creates an opportunity for automation to excel and have more introduced.

• (c) The prototypical customer here, or at least the people that would be "gaining" with this opportunity are corporations or "the big man" with the companies that create these automatic machines to be incorporated in the work field. I think, because a lot of Americans are now seeking to earn college and post-graduate degrees in desired career fields, this opens up the chance for automation to grow, but at the same time, these labor-type jobs are still necessary to employ the people that are actively looking for work and may not be qualified or have the degree to get higher-paying and more sturdy employment.

• (d) I think this opportunity is relatively easy to exploit because we already are living in an automated world, we rely on these machines to wake us up in the morning (alarms) because we don't trust ourselves, we rely on these same machines to remind us of birthdays and our kid's soccer practice times because we no longer write things down or rely on our own memory. Because automation surrounds us today, I think it would not be hard for big companies to eventually replace factories, cars and homes as we know it, because we might not see it even if it's before our eyes.

•  Why? I think I saw this opportunity in this way because of the influence and experience I've had in my own life. Last semester, I was enrolled in a Minorities in American Society class that really opened my eyes to what's been going on in our country that we might think isn't on a daily basis and automation was one of those trends.

Opportunity #2: Huge growth in life expectancy in most nations

• (a) This was found on the same site was the first one.
• https://www.globalchange.com/10-trends-that-will-dominate-our-future-all-predictable-changing-slowly-with-huge-impact.htm

• (b) This exists because of the medical advances and technology that we're developing constantly. Life expectancy is said to be increasing by a year in every four years, according to the trends cited on the website.

• (c) The customer in this opportunity is all of us, but really millennials and the generation that follow after, as they would be the ones who live to older ages.

• (d) I think because of the advancements we are making medically and health wise, this might be easier to exploit.

• Why? I think most people would see this opportunity in a similar as me, but although medical advancements are for the most part seen in a positive light, there may be a counter-argument out there that suggests a lot of these technological advancements are becoming un-natural and could potentially have risks and side effects to them.

Regulatory Trends

Opportunity #3: Workplace Diversity and Inclusion in the years to come

• (a) I found this on a 2019 forecast of disability related trends
• https://riskandinsurance.com/2019-forecasts-for-absence-and-disability/

• (b) I think this exists because of the current lack of inclusivity in the workplace among people with different skill sets and abilities; many people with disabilities (of any kind) have a difficult time getting hired for jobs or keeping jobs because of their limited skill sets and it is hoped to be improved in the near future. 

• (c) The customers who would benefit from this opportunity would be the currently employed or potential employees with disabilities (whatever they may be), who would be able to apply their own individual knowledge and diverse skill set and bring it to the table at that work place. 

• (d) I think this opportunity would be relatively difficult to exploit because many company owners and employers although would like to expand their companies and include a more diverse community, on the surface level, there are biases, assumptions and discriminations made by these employers that can't always be blamed because they may be ignorant on how to handle or interact with individuals with disabilities but also, should open up their mindset into learning more about this population and what they may need from their employers as well as the unique and individualized skills they can provide to the company.

• Why? I feel that this opportunity hits close to home for me. As someone who has experience and works with individuals with disabilities daily as a career as a behavior therapist for individuals with autism, it's easy for me to confront this opportunity and apply the perspective on the disabilities side of it. Others who may not have as much knowledge or experience with this population may not understand why this opportunity is one, or why it should be, but may offer a different perspective that I may not have.

Opportunity #4: Regulatory Trends in Privacy and Cybersecurity 2019

• (a) Found this here:
• https://blog.procircular.com/regulatory-trends-in-privacy-and-cybersecurity-2019

• (b)  I think this exists because the ironically increasing lack of privacy on the individual level of citizens in the United States. An excerpt from this article struck out to me, where it compared the privacy regulations of the United States and Europe. The U.S enforces privacy regulations and security of it's own federal government and businesses but when it comes to the citizen's privacy, the U.S lacks to secure it as much as Europe manages to secure the privacy and rights of their citizens. Simply put, the U.S prioritizes it's government and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance privacy over their own people.

• (c) Every individual with a right to privacy and possessing personal information.

• (d) There are groups out there working to protect the privacy rights of the individuals and citizens of this country so that a, as it was phrased in the blog, "Privacy Apocalypse" doesn't occur and we can only be optimistic that it will improve.

• Why? Often times, this issue is not put out there and many people believe that our privacy is just that, OURS. But it is hard for me to be convinced that our personal information is not out there being exploited when cases of breach of privacy are constantly occurring, not to mention lawsuits coming out with companies like Facebook and others that initially claim (to their consumers) to be with-holding consumer personal information for no one to see but can actually be reached.

5A - Identifying Local Opportunities

Opportunity #1:
UF Resident Assistant Charged with Battery Released as 'High-Achieving' Student Leader

• https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-resident-assistant-charged-with-battery-released-as-high-achieving/article_22218abc-d2bc-11e9-b6c8-576af09c51cc.html
•  A 'high-achieving' male student gets away with repeatedly bothering a female student, requesting sexual favors and following her to her dorm room, despite the many refusals he is getting from her. Because he is in an honor society, is teacher's assistant and claims to have "a lot of student work to do", Milaski's charges of battery and sexual assault were dropped.
• The problem in this story has to do with the lack of listening skills in some people as well as the problem we have in court today. The assault took place. The victim was affected. And the perpetrator was released and dropped of his charges all because of his status. This is not the way things should be handled in court, this just spirals and leads to even bigger problems. Would it be okay for a person of power and in high social and economic status to have committed assault and battery only because of the position he is in and the things he has previously accomplished? 
• I think the court system and the way things are decided in today's age (and for some time) is the problem. I think the system fails to recognize the real issues in these cases and overlook the victim's story because the perpetrator "has done so well" in his life prior to the incident. Anyone can be high-achieving and still have ill-intentions, and commit crimes. That is where our focus needs to be, not brushing off incidents like these and prevent change from happening.

Opportunity #2:

UF Student Reported She was Raped in Jennings Hall

• https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-student-reported-she-was-raped-in-jennings-hall-upd/article_03622c12-d41f-11e9-9b96-9fab926c54c5.html
• A female student reported she was raped in Jennings Hall and did not want to disclose any more information because the perpetrator was someone she was in a personal relationship with.
• I think the problem in this story has to do with lack of detailed reporting. The more information the UFPD has of the incident and of the perpetrator, the easier the process would be. Not knowing what happened in this incident, I do know a lot of cases like these usually happen among people who know each other and do habe relations with one another, but because of that, it is easy to not know how to handle the situation, the victim may be making excuses for the perpetrator because they knew each other well or may be afraid of what may come of it.
• The first problem lies within preventing these things from actually happening. The UFPD advises students to not walk alone at night or remain in lit and public places where others are around, but even then, this occurred in a dormitory, where supervision is not always in place and difficult to keep. The other problem is how the incident is handled.

Opportunity #3:

Students and Activists Make Posters Ahead of Blue Light Protest on Fraternity Row

• https://www.alligator.org/news/students-and-activists-make-posters-ahead-of-blue-light-protest/article_6c882e9c-d4e9-11e9-a8c9-83afa3c1f69c.html
• This protest is led due to the lack of blue light emergency lights on Fraternity Row. Students and activists make posters to use in a protest to move these blue lights to Fraternity Row.
• The problem seems to be the lack of blue emergency lights on Fraternity Row. These lights were created for emergency purposes and are scattered all around campus but seem to be missing here. The absence of these lights leave students that live or hang around fraternity row often, feel unsafe, especially considering the number of reported assaults on campus lately and the saddened culture of fraternities. Although I think blue lights are important in making us feel safe and like we can be helped in case of anything, I think the real problem lies with the actual incidents and the fact that we should be afraid and constantly on edge that something might happen to us, in the first place.
• Fraternity Row has the problem however, UF and the city have to deal with this problem.

Opportunity #4:

City Commission Repeals Plastic Ban, Raises GRU Rates

• https://www.alligator.org/news/city-commission-repeals-plastic-ban-raises-gru-rates/article_cbb76770-d5e3-11e9-9a5e-2fe54a48b3cd.html
• The city commission is overturning its efforts on banning Styrofoam and single use plastic bags while GRU bills go up. In this story, a woman explains how even having her AC off for a month, her GRU bill still reached $250 living in a studio apartment.
• The problem lies within the city commission and its efforts to repeal the plastic ban but also the insane GRU rates. 
• The residents of Gainesville are the ones who feel the burdens of this problem because GRU rates are so high, it becomes difficult to make ends meet to pay them.

Opportunity #5:

No More Mango: Trump Administration to Propose Ban on E-Cigarette Flavors

• https://www.alligator.org/news/no-more-mango-trump-administration-to-propose-ban-of-e/article_0a061ac4-d4dd-11e9-bcd5-87d4340fabf1.html
• Underage vaping is the reason for this ban. After a sixth person died in the U.S Wednesday from vaping, Trump proposes to ban popular vaping flavors like mango, strawberry and mint.
• The problem lies within the vaping community, which has lost six people to vape-related issues. Although there is controversy on whether this ban will be doing the people more harm than good. 
• The vapers have the problem. An employee of a Vape company stated that this ban would only drive the users to smoke cigarettes again which would be just as harmful.

3A- My Entrepreneurship Story

My Entrepreneurship Story:

Growing up from an immigrant family originally from the Dominican Republic, I was raised around a mother who practically was a member of a family of entrepreneurs in her household back on the island. Before she moved to the states, my mom was helping her sisters run a convenience store as well as a party and event rentals store they owned right off their house in their neighborhood, it seemed to be a family lineage of entrepreneurs. My mom would get called to work at the stores, sell street food, help arrange party favors, tailor a bridesmaid dress, do hair and makeup, or sell homemade ice cream popsicles all at a very young age.

Even though my mom moved here and created a different life for herself and for us as her children, she still brought us up with the little tips and tricks she learned back home. As a child growing up here in Florida, my mom and I used to really get into the baking scene, following tutorials, taking decorating classes at the local bakery and getting our hands dirty by making and baking whatever interesting goods we wanted to and share them with our family and friends in town. I'd bring homemade cake pops to school for my friends and sometimes sell them to others when they realized how good they were and slowly, creating, became a thing in our house. We made goodies all the way from Halloween biscuit witch fingers to Easter bunny candy pops. It was not only a start of a small business-like experience but a great bonding experience with my mom as well. We enjoyed the art of creating, even if it was making the simplest of things.

Exploring other DIY crafts to make, we looked into soap making and different kinds of nutrients and natural essences we can put into soap that could help those around us with skin issues, really just starting with ourselves (I thought I had terrible acne in middle school and wanted to find ways to solve this myself instead of spending hundreds on a product prescribed by a dermatologist made of chemicals no one's ever even heard of).

So we bought soap making books, invested in the making materials, essences, colors, natural ingredients and started making some soap. My mom did really well with this one oatmeal based soap in particular, shared it with some family and friends and it did wonders on our skin, she got great reviews from her peers. Although we mainly did what we did out of curiosity and for fun, if we really built it upwards, we probably could have made a real small business out of it. We tried packaging and gifting some of what we made but we never made labels or applied for a sales permit or made a name for our 'company'. It was just a couple of amateur crafters having fun and bonding over creating something pretty cool and useful. But, I guess, that's all you really need to start yourself up as an entrepreneur, isn't it?

I enrolled in ENT3003 because of my Innovation minor and I have previously taken this class before, but, I would like to say this class is definitely one I find a lot of interests in because I enjoy looking for new ways to solve problems around me and hope to be able to do more of that as I progress forward in this class and my career as a hopeful future entrepreneur.